“Walking the environmental responsibility talk” in the automobile industry:

An ethics case study of the Volkswagen environmental scandal

A case study by Chiara Valentini and Dean Kruckeberg about the Volkswagen
environmental scandal discussed the issue of one of the largest players in the automobile
industry in line with ethical considerations on corporate social responsibility and corporate
sustainability. The study uses Cavanagh et al. (1981) and Gao’s (2008) ethical judgment
framework in assessing Volkswagen’s behavior which discovered that the company’s actions
were clearly unethical in view of its major stakeholders’ interests.

The main conflict in this scandal is Volkswagen’s desire to “gain a greater piece of US
market share”, which was expected to increase their financial dividends, to the point of
intentionally altering the test results on its vehicles just to meet US clean air standards. At first
glance, one can say that the action is clearly unethical since it involves malice in the form of
lying and cheating. It somehow defrauds the stakeholders involved, especially the customers
who trust the word of the organization regarding their products’ impact in the environment. The
case study was able to show that it is not only because of simply “lying” and “cheating” that
makes it unethical for Volkswagen, but it is more than that. Gao’s (2008) ethical judgment
framework is a comprehensive criteria of determining and understanding where exactly the
corporation did wrong and how to conclude the wrongness of the act using three ethical theories
in line with ethical corporate issues of goals, means, processes and consequences. First theory
is the Utilitarian Theory, which was able to classify good or bad depending on whether the
consequences produce the “greatest good for the greatest number of people”.

Reference
Valentini, C., & Kruckeberg, D. (2018). “Walking the environmental responsibility talk” in the automobile
industry: An ethics case study of the Volkswagen environmental scandal. Corporate
Communications: An International Journal, 23(4), 528–543.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327512699_Walking_the_environmental_responsibil
ity_talk_in_the_automobile_industry_An_ethics_case_study_of_the_Volkswagen_environment
al_scandal